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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.4 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Turkey

Let PP be the set of all 20122012 tuples (x1,x2,,x2012)(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_{2012}), where xi{1,2,,20}x_i \in \{1, 2, \dots, 20\} for each 1i20121 \le i \le 2012. The set APA \subset P is said to be decreasing if for each (x1,x2,,x2012)A(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_{2012}) \in A any (y1,y2,,y2012)(y_1, y_2, \dots, y_{2012}) satisfying yixiy_i \le x_i (1i20121 \le i \le 2012) also belongs to AA. The set BPB \subset P is said to be increasing if for each (x1,x2,,x2012)B(x_1, x_2, \dots, x_{2012}) \in B any (y1,y2,,y2012)(y_1, y_2, \dots, y_{2012}) satisfying yixiy_i \ge x_i (1i20121 \le i \le 2012) also belongs to BB. Find the maximal possible value of f(A,B)=ABABf(A, B) = \frac{|A \cap B|}{|A| \cdot |B|}, where AA and BB are nonempty decreasing and increasing sets (| \cdot | denotes the number of elements of the set).

Solution

The answer is 1202012\frac{1}{20^{2012}}.
Let us treat more general case when PP is the set of all nn tuples. If A=B=PA = B = P then
f(A,B)=120nf(A, B) = \frac{1}{20^n}. We prove that f(A,B)120nf(A, B) \le \frac{1}{20^n} by induction over nn.

n=1n = 1. Suppose that A={1,2,,a+c}A = \{1, 2, \dots, a+c\}, B={20bc+1,,20}B = \{20-b-c+1, \dots, 20\}. Then AB=c|A \cap B| = c, A=a+c|A| = a+c, B=b+c|B| = b+c and f(A,B)=c(a+c)(b+c)=120+ab/c120f(A, B) = \frac{c}{(a+c)(b+c)} = \frac{1}{20+ab/c} \le \frac{1}{20}.
Suppose that the statement is correct for n1n-1. Let A=i=120AiA = \bigcup_{i=1}^{20} A_i, where elements of the set AiA_i are obtained from elements of AA having last entry ii by removing this last entry. By definitions A=i=120Ai|A| = \sum_{i=1}^{20} |A_i| and A1A2A20A_1 \subset A_2 \subset \dots \subset A_{20}. Let B=i=120BiB = \bigcup_{i=1}^{20} B_i, where elements of the set BiB_i are obtained from elements of BB having last entry ii by removing this last entry. By definitions B=i=120Bi|B| = \sum_{i=1}^{20} |B_i| and B1B2B20B_1 \supset B_2 \supset \dots \supset B_{20}. Now
AB=i=120AiBi120n1i=120AiBi120n1120(i=120Ai)(i=120Bi)=120nAB |A \cap B| = \sum_{i=1}^{20} |A_i \cap B_i| \le \frac{1}{20^{n-1}} \sum_{i=1}^{20} |A_i| \cdot |B_i| \le \frac{1}{20^{n-1}} \cdot \frac{1}{20} \left( \sum_{i=1}^{20} |A_i| \right) \left( \sum_{i=1}^{20} |B_i| \right) = \frac{1}{20^n} |A| \cdot |B|
(The first inequality is valid due to inductive hypothesis, the second inequality is the Chebyshev's rearrangement inequality). Done.

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